1. Field of the Invention
The present invention broadly relates to telecommunication devices, and more particularly, to a payphone that stores different categories of information and audibly plays back one or more categories of information to a user of the payphone.
2. Description of the Related Art
Telephone communication has seen a phenomenal growth since its inception because of its extreme usefulness in today's world. It is hard, and almost impossible, to conceive of a world without telephones. Telephones have almost become an integral part of a civilized society. One major source of revenue for a telephone service provider is derived from supplying telephone services to residential and business customers. However, payphones owned and operated by the service provider may also generate substantial revenues for the service provider because of the call-making flexibility afforded by a payphone.
Payphones or coin-operated phones are, as the names suggest, regular telephones that are operative when a requisite amount of money is deposited into the phone units. When a user wishes to use a payphone, the user deposits a minimum amount (e.g., 35 cents), dials the telephone number of the called party, and a central office enables completion of the call once the minimum cost of the call has been satisfied. The central office also determines how much the call will cost beyond the minimum amount already deposited and advises the caller of any added cost to allow continuation of the call. When the called party answers, the user can immediately speak with the called party. However, if the called party does not answer or if the called telephone is busy, the deposited coins are returned to the user.
Signals from a central office which enable collection or return of deposited coins may not be provided on all telephone lines emanating from the central office, but may be provided to only those telephone lines running from the central office to central office-owned (i.e., telephone service provider-owned) payphones. Alternatively, privately-owned payphones may be available with requisite signal generation and control circuitry physically built into the payphones. In that event, the person owning the payphone may provide coin-operated telephone services to users by installing the payphone at the person's place of business, e.g., a restaurant, and connect the payphone to a conventional telephone line running into such place of business. Such purchased payphones have self-contained control and operation circuitry, internal to the payphone unit, to compute required coin deposits and to control whether deposited coins should be collected or returned. In one version of a privately-owned payphone, the payphone is initially coupled to the central office when the user removes a handset from the switch-hook so that a dial tone may be supplied from the central office to prompt the user to enter the telephone number of the called party. In another version, a privately-owned payphone may include a local dial tone generator to supply the dial tone from the payphone itself without obtaining the dial tone from the central office. The payphone may receive the digits dialed by the user and may then transmit them to the central office for further call processing.
Further improvements in payphones have resulted in payphones with display terminals and/or with facilities to swipe a calling card prior to placing a phone call. A display screen provided as part of the payphone may allow a user to monitor the cost of the phone call, the time spent on the call, the number dialed to reach the called party, the calling card number entered (if applicable), etc. The display screen may also show marketing messages the service provider wants the user to read. A calling card swiping facility relieves the user from entering a calling card number, thereby preventing mistakes that may be made while entering a long account number.
It is noted, however, that a technologically-advanced payphone still fails to provide solutions to a number of problems routinely encountered by payphone users. For example, a car owner whose car needs to be towed may not be aware of which towing companies are present in the neighboring area. In that case, the car owner may have to place one or more directory-assistance calls using the payphone, thereby incurring call charges. In another example, a tourist at a payphone may desire to get up-to-date weather information for the local area. Without knowing who to call, the tourist may have to rely on the information supplied by people nearby or may incur call expenses to obtain the desired information. Also, a person at a highway payphone booth may wish to receive the latest information about the person's choice of sports events. Such information may not be easily available unless that person has access to the Internet or the person calls somebody (thus incurring call expenses, which may be long-distance call expenses in certain cases) who can then supply the desired information.
The foregoing examples illustrate how inconvenient and frustrating it is to obtain certain information during routinely occurring real-life situations. It is therefore desirable to have a mechanism whereby a user can obtain the desired information directly from the payphone without resorting to phone calls and their concomitant call expenses. In other words, it is desirable to enhance the functionality of a payphone so that the payphone audibly dispenses the requisite information (i.e., functions as an information transmittal device).